Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf, right, skates in on goal as Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook tries to defend from behind, during the first period of their game Saturday. CHARLES REX ARBOGAST, AP

ANAHEIM – Teemu Selanne's midlife is a goaltender's crisis.

So the Finnish Flash, who is old enough to remember actual flashbulbs, got his 22nd hat trick as the Ducks overcame Colorado, and themselves, by a 5-4 count Monday night.

Only two of their 13 points came from the line of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan.

It is not a trend the Ducks want to prolong, and normalcy will return Wednesday night in Calgary, where Perry will be gang-tackled by the home-country media.

But as the Perry-Over-America tour resumed last week, and as he became anointed as a Hart Trophy candidate, Getzlaf was not exactly riding in the sidecar.

The Ducks captain had seven assists on the three-game trip and played at least 24:57 in every game. He took big faceoffs, he sent defensemen flying, he blocked shots, he did all the things people have demanded of him since he began getting first-line minutes.

And maybe some of them noticed.

"The hitting is something that you pay a little more attention to, down the stretch," Getzlaf said. "It got a little bit lax earlier in the season with the injuries I had. But you have to get back into the hitting, and that's a point we had to make."

The Getzlaf-Perry-Ryan line, and its place near or at the top of NHL lines, is becoming accepted these days. In the first period Monday, they attacked the Avalanche at full speed and Ryan fired a puck over a mostly empty net.

But the Ducks forwards got too deep on the play and could do nothing about Colorado's counterpunch, cashed by Matt Duchene.

Make that "the best offensive line in hockey."

However, the Ducks played much tighter and more responsibly in Chicago on Saturday night.

Run-and-gun hockey rarely works in the West. But sometimes the Ducks need to outscore people, and that's when they ride Getzlaf and Perry, and the inner GPS they share.

"If I don't know where Corey is by now, I'm in trouble," Getzlaf said.

"I know he'll be around the net no matter where I am. Sometimes it's tough to get the puck there. You don't need the perfect or pretty pass. But we don't have to talk a lot on the ice. I know where he is 95 percent of the time. The other 5 percent, nobody does."

Getzlaf turns 26 on May 10 (Perry, six days later). He is an Olympic gold medalist, a Stanley Cup winner, a World Junior champion, a husband, a father, a warrior who has played for team and country on a mangled ankle.

Now, suddenly, he is the captain. The Ducks were hoping it would prompt a C-change in the way Getzlaf looked at himself.

"He's handled it very well," Todd Marchant said. "He is composed when he needs to be. He has stepped up and said things. He has leaned on veteran players for advice."

"It's been a learning curve," Getzlaf said. "But I've enjoyed it. It's not my job to get everybody in the room to get ready to play. But there's a very fine line in doing your own job and letting everybody do his. Fortunately I'm surrounded by a group that knows how to play this time of year."

Getzlaf came into Monday with 18 goals and 50 assists. He has always seen himself as a facilitator, despite the obvious blaze on his shot.

It was 3-3 on Monday when the Ducks got on a power play, and Getzlaf seemed to have ample time and space to fire on Brian Elliott. He didn't, because he couldn't find a lane and didn't want to risk loss of possession.

He kept the puck moving, and so did his teammates, and suddenly Cam Fowler was firing a knee-dropper over Elliott's shoulder for the go-ahead score.

"You're never going to satisfy everybody," Getzlaf said. "It's a point that you have to take as a positive. People expect big things every single night and it's a hard thing to grasp.

"When I was younger it was tough. I felt my best was somehow never good enough. But now it's a situation where I've proven I can play at this level and be effective down the stretch."

He will never bring Jonathan Toews' IRS-agent glare into the room, but his unselfishness and abrasiveness on the ice can be an accountability tool, as well.

"When you're considered a world-class player there will be expectations," Marchant said. "It comes with the territory."

The Ducks carved out another inch of territory in the standings Monday, and Perry chanted "one more year" as he passed Selanne in the room.

The years are flying by for those who remember the young Ryan Getzlaf, but he seems to be reeling in this one.

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